Sanwo-Olu-led stakeholders seek stronger investment, better distribution and a functioning electricity market to close Lagos’ supply gap

The Lagos State Government has unveiled a 3,500MW power target as Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, federal officials and electricity sector stakeholders seek a lasting solution to persistent blackouts across Nigeria’s commercial capital.

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The target was announced on Thursday, August 20, 2026, during the Lagos State High-Level Strategic Power Town Hall Meeting at Lagos House, Marina, where stakeholders examined the constraints limiting electricity supply and agreed that dependable power was essential to sustaining the state’s economic growth.

Representing the Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, the ministry’s Director of Distribution Services, Baba Mustapha, said Lagos needed more than 6,000MW to adequately meet its electricity demand but currently received only a fraction of that requirement from the national grid.

Mustapha cautioned that simply increasing generation would not solve the problem without corresponding investment in transmission and distribution infrastructure.

He identified gas availability, generation capacity, transmission limitations, distribution bottlenecks and metering as areas requiring urgent intervention.

Lagos has already secured 400MW from private electricity producers, according to Mustapha, who said the state should continue developing gas-fired, embedded and renewable energy sources to expand supply.

For Governor Sanwo-Olu, however, the challenge extends beyond the volume of electricity generated.

He called for stronger coordination among government agencies, regulators and industry operators, alongside improvements in smart metering, data management, enforcement and revenue assurance.

Sanwo-Olu said a coordinated approach would be necessary to rebuild consumer confidence, strengthen the electricity market and attract the investment needed to expand infrastructure.

He proposed that stakeholders reconvene in five to six months to assess progress against the commitments reached at the town hall.

The proposed review is expected to provide a practical measure of whether the state’s electricity interventions are translating into more reliable supply for households and businesses.

Lagos Commissioner for Energy and Mineral Resources, Abiodun Ogunleye, described the government’s objective as ending what he called the “culture of blackout” in the state.

Ogunleye said Lagos currently received less than one gigawatt from the national grid despite the Transmission Company of Nigeria having about 3.5GW of wheeling capacity.

The immediate plan, he explained, is to add about 2GW to existing supply, bringing available electricity closer to 3.5GW and allowing more feeders to serve residential and industrial communities.

“The culture of blackout” has become particularly significant for Lagos because unreliable electricity affects not only households but also manufacturers, small businesses, offices and service providers that depend on alternative power sources.

Ogunleye said the government would develop specific action points and establish a baseline for measuring progress before the proposed six-month review.

The state also acknowledged that increased supply must be accompanied by responsible payment for electricity consumed.

Ogunleye said consumers should pay their electricity bills promptly where power is supplied, while insisting that the government would not support situations where residents were charged for electricity they did not receive.

That balance between supply and payment reflects one of the central difficulties confronting Nigeria’s electricity market, where inadequate service, poor revenue collection and infrastructure constraints have repeatedly reinforced one another.

Special Adviser to the President on Power and Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Power Sector Reset and Restoration, Rilwan Babalola, argued that the country’s electricity crisis could not be resolved simply by adding more megawatts.

Babalola said Nigeria needed to move from managing shortages to building a functioning electricity market in which energy, contracts and payments move predictably throughout the value chain.

He identified Lagos as a strategic testing ground for the proposed Clean Lagos Electricity Market.

The model is expected to centre on demand aggregation, bilateral power contracts, open access, payment assurance and transparent settlement.

Babalola said the initial 500MW proposed under the model should first demonstrate that electricity can be generated reliably, transmitted, delivered, metered, accounted for and paid for before the initiative is expanded.

His remarks underline a broader shift in the government’s approach to the power sector, with greater emphasis being placed on the delivery of usable electricity rather than headline generation figures.

Babalola also warned that decentralising Nigeria’s electricity market should not create fragmentation, stressing the importance of clear coordination between federal and state regulators and effective integration with the interconnected national grid.

The wider Power Sector Reset agenda, he said, is intended to move Nigeria from repeated government interventions towards functional markets and from managing scarcity to building a sustainable electricity industry.

For Lagos, the proposed 3,500MW power target represents an ambitious attempt to narrow the gap between the state’s enormous electricity demand and the limited supply currently reaching consumers.

The success of the plan, however, will depend on whether generation, gas supply, transmission, distribution, metering and payment systems improve together rather than in isolation.

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With the stakeholders scheduled to assess their progress within five to six months, the next review will offer an important test of whether Lagos can turn the ambitious target into a more reliable electricity supply for the millions of residents and businesses that power the state’s economy.